Abstract
In this study, nonlinear analyses of prestressed concrete(PSC) test beams for inservice inspection of prestressed concrete containments for CANDU nuclear power plants are presented. In the analysis the material nonlinearities of concrete, rebar and prestressing steel are used. To reduce the numerical instability with respect to the used finite element mesh size, the tension stiffening effect has been considered. For concrete, the tensile stress-strain relationship derived from tests is modified and the stress-strain curve of rebar is assumed as a simple bilinear model. The stress-strain curve of prestressing steel is applied as a multilineal curve with the first straight line up to 0.8fpu. To prove the validity of the applied material models, the behavior and strength of the PSC test specimens tested to failure have been evaluated. A reasonable agreement between the experimental results and the predictions is obtained. Parametric studies on the tension stiffening effects, the impact of prestressing losses with time, and the compressive strength of concrete have been conducted.